LIP chief stops auction of panchayat land

Ludhiana: Authorities who had gone to Khanpur Mand village in Machhiwara for auction of panchayat land to set up industrial units, as part of the state government scheme, had to return empty-handed, as Lok Insaf Party (LIP) chief and MLA Simarjit Bains did not allow them to do so.
On Thursday, authorities had gone to Khanpur Mand village for auction of panchayat land to set up a stubble-based biogas plant, where industry representatives had come for bidding. However, as the process was going on, LIP chief Simarjit Bains also reached there, and along with the villagers, he strongly opposed the move.
Later, talking to mediapersons after cancellation of the process, the LIP chief said by giving panchayat land to the land mafia, the Congress government was trying to make farmers jobless. He alleged that chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, under the garb of giving land to industry, was on the lookout to usurp panchayat land near Chandigarh. He further alleged that former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal too owned hundreds of acres of panchayat land.